Harry Potter: Who cares about belated motherly love?

My name is Edgar Weasley, I am 21 years old.

After graduating from Hogwarts, I never thought about looking for a formal job. Instead, I started doing odd jobs. Basically, as long as it was not illegal, I would take it.

When Professor Slughorn knew that I did not plan to work but to be self-employed, and he also planned to retire and concentrate on research, he asked me to help collect and mix herbs.

But sometimes, I also help out in regular stores.

This incident became an opportunity, and later people came to me for help one after another, and my life became less troubled.

Professor Slughorn also introduced me to his successor, Mr. Snape, who often gave me tasks during the long holidays.

Even though his instructions were annoyingly detailed, he paid way too much money, and even though he had a scary face, he wasn't essentially a bad guy, so I liked him a lot.

During my time at school, I had almost no interaction with Mr. Snape. There was a big age gap between us, and he was a Slytherin. I only saw him a few times occasionally at Professor Slughorn's place, and we hardly talked.

However, everyone knew that he once liked the stunningly beautiful Evans, and Potter was jealous of him because he was Evans' childhood sweetheart, so he teamed up with Black to bully him.

Despite this, no one around him sympathized with him, which I found quite remarkable!

He has a twisted personality and is alone most of the time, but I admire him for the way he doesn't care at all.

When I heard that he became a Death Eater, I thought it was no surprise that he turned out like this after being bullied by Potter and others.

Dumbledore would protect Gryffindor students, but not Slytherin students.

As a result, Potter and Black pushed many Slytherin students into darkness.

Then, they fought against darkness under the banner of justice.

When I talked about this with my great uncle, he said that Dumbledore was nothing special.

The Weasley family is on the light side, but except for Arthur, none of them joined the Order of the Phoenix.

Later, Mr. Snape became a Death Eater, but for some reason he was taken in by Dumbledore and eventually took over Professor Slughorn's position at Hogwarts.

From then on, we started to interact.

……

The next day, after my meeting with the Malfoys, I visited Mr. Snape's home as agreed.

"Hi, how are you?"

"Hey, what the hell are you doing!"

He grabbed my collar and strangled me hard.

“…It…it hurts…”

He let go.

"Forget it, don't get excited. What I'm going to say next will be quite long. Let's make a cup of tea first."

"You are so shameless, this is my home."

Although he said nasty things, he still prepared tea and snacks.

Snape is just that kind of person. No matter what, he is still very caring.

I asked, "Did the Malfoys send you any letter?"

Snape replied with a straight face: "No, they came directly to explain the situation last night. Is the matter about Harry true? If it is true, I must protest to Petunia! Petunia, who hated wizards since childhood, was responsible for taking care of Harry, and the result is so obvious! Why am I doubting it now?"

“It feels like a spell, right?”

He suddenly showed a shocked expression and fell into deep thought.

"However, Petunia's house is enchanted to keep wizards away, so you can't get close to them."

"But I have the phone, and I know their number just in case."

His house is different from ordinary wizard families in that it has electricity.

"Why didn't you call before? If you called once in a while and let Petunia blow off some steam, maybe Harry would be treated differently."

I couldn't help but raise my voice. He seemed a little crestfallen, though not noticeably.

"That's because...Penny and I had a bad relationship since we were young. We never saw each other again after the quarrel, and I didn't know how to start the call..."

"We are already dealing with the issue of Harry's treatment. A friend of mine has successfully contacted the Dursleys and improved Harry's diet. After all, in the wizarding world, Harry Potter is regarded as a hero. If the Dursleys' abuse of him were known to the wizarding world, they might be in danger. I asked my friend to hint this to them. Although Harry is locked in the storage room, the Dursleys don't know how to use the repair spell, and they don't have much money, so they can only lock Harry in the storage room to avoid spending more money repairing the house."

"So, you can make the call, but don't blame the family, okay?"

He was silent for a while, and finally nodded reluctantly.

Feeling the atmosphere was a little awkward, I changed the subject:

"By the way, tell me about yourself. How is the inheritance of the Prince family going?"

"I went to the Ministry of Magic to confirm this morning, and it turns out that I am indeed the heir. I have never paid attention to the household registration of the Ministry of Magic before, so I have always been registered as Severus Snape, who is of Muggle origin. The Ministry of Magic does not know that my mother is Eileen Prince. After all, my mother has never had any contact with the wizarding world since she eloped. As a result, I now have a lot of documents to deal with. The Malfoy family introduced me to a law firm that can handle Muggle and wizard affairs, and I entrusted the work to them."

"...It's really troublesome."

"But didn't you once call yourself the 'Half-Blood Prince'?" I joked.

Snape seemed reluctant to mention it.

"That was when I was a student. At the time, I thought it would be easier with family support, so I hoped to get support from my mother's family. But when I grew up, I realized that family support meant obligations, so now I just feel it's a hassle."

"But in order to protect Harry, you still need the support of the Prince family, right? Accept it if you can."

He nodded reluctantly.

"I might be very busy with these chores this summer, so I have to cancel the task I entrusted to you before, is that okay?"

"No problem, can I go now? I'm busy."

When I heard there was no money left, I was ready to leave.

"Wait a minute! I'm going to call Penny now. You have to stay by my side and keep an eye on me. Don't let me say the wrong thing! Also, although I can't go to Penny's house, we can meet somewhere else. Can you ask your friend to help? Of course, I'll pay you."

"Okay, but you have to tell Petunia that the child support will be paid in a while. Also, you can tell her that they may be able to ask the wizarding world for compensation for things Harry broke in the past. According to my friend, the Dursleys are very disciplined people and should keep detailed bills. We can handle this matter, so ask her to give us a copy of the bill."

"Also, the old lady next door to the Dursleys is Dumbledore's spy, so we must let Petunia pay attention and don't let her notice our actions."

"I understand."

Snape picked up the phone as if he was going to die, and took several deep breaths, as if he had to do this to muster up the courage to make the call.

After all, he had never made this call before.

Finally, he made the call.

"Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep..."

At first, the other party roared loudly for a long time.

Yeah, if it were me, I would naturally be angry if my relative died inexplicably and left behind a nephew without any explanation.

During this time, Mr. Snape followed my advice and kept apologizing and comforting the other party.

After a while, Penny calmed down a little and began to listen to our explanation calmly.

Although she was skeptical about the issue of child support and compensation, she agreed to consider it.

This is understandable, after all, she didn't have much hope for our promise.

Snape then insisted on meeting Harry, and Petunia advised him not to expect too much, because Harry looked like a carbon copy of James and almost nothing like Lily.

However, faced with Snape's insistence, Petunia finally compromised and agreed to bring Harry out for Snape to see the day after tomorrow when her husband and son were not at home.

After hanging up the phone, Snape looked relieved and satisfied.